


Found You Hidden in Plain Sight

by DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Acxa and Keith Friendship, Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baker Narti, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Keith's Wolf is a Good Doggo, M/M, Narti is Beautiful and Acxa is Too Gay for This, Rarepair, Service Dogs, Veteran Acxa, Veteran Keith, background klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 02:06:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15184388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee/pseuds/DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee
Summary: Her eyes are closed, a slight smile curls her lips up as she mouths along to music the plate glass window keeps Acxa from hearing. Flour dusts her arms, a smear of dough paints a pale line across one cheek as her slender hands thump, thud and massage the dough into shape.She’s the most beautiful person Acxa’s ever seen in her life.





	Found You Hidden in Plain Sight

**Author's Note:**

> More rare pair fluff *jazz hands away*

**Day 1**

            It’s her own damn fault for picking a different route for her morning run. Actually, scratch that, it’s the city’s fault for putting a massive clot of construction equipment in the middle of her usual route. With a sigh (through gritted teeth, she’s not Keith-levels of routine oriented, but Acxa doesn’t like change. At all. Change can die in a fire.) Acxa tugs on Wolf’s leash and heads in a new direction, the steady drum of her feet on the sidewalk and the reassuring blast of ‘Daughters of Darkness’ through her headphones a comfort in this new chaos world she’s found herself in. One where city officials can just decide to upend her schedule completely on one of her few mornings off.

            Keith’s going to hate this.

            Wolf trots beside her, tongue lolling out, happy as a clam. Or happy as a giant husky-shepherd mix on a run with one of his favorite people. Whatever.

            Wolf and Keith are the two things that keep Acxa from completely regretting her time in the marines. Old wounds may ache and nightmares may shake her out of her sleep every few nights, but she’d graduated high school with no money for college and no prospects for the future. The marines gave her a scrappy punk of a boy she now calls her brother, blood be damned, the money to go to school part-time like she is now, and the ‘fuck it’ attitude that pushed her to help Keith pick out a big friendly dog for when the flashbacks poked them in all their soft places.

            But she seriously hates changing her routine.

            She spends the first chunk of her run cursing out city officials and their need to ruin all that is good about a cool clear morning too early for much foot traffic to clog up the sidewalks, and then she sees Her and it all stops. The Offspring screaming ‘You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid’ in her ears seems too loud, too harsh for this moment. She resists the urge to rip the headphones out of her ears as she _literally slows down_ like a stupid romcom moment come to life. She’s practically walking by the time she passes the big picture window where a gorgeous woman with dusky brown skin and a deep purple headscarf beats a glob of bread dough into submission. Her eyes are closed, a slight smile curls her lips up as she mouths along to music the plate glass window keeps Acxa from hearing. Flour dusts her arms, a smear of dough paints a pale line across one cheek as her slender hands thump, thud and massage the dough into shape.

            She’s the most beautiful person Acxa’s ever seen in her life.

            Wolf, not understanding why they’re slowing down, weaves in front of her, yanking on the leash unexpectedly. Acxa almost takes a header into the sidewalk, just barely saving herself from serious facial damage at the last moment.

            The beautiful stranger blinks open her eyes and lifts her head, tipping it to the side, dark brows pulling together curiously as she stares off into the distance. As if she’s listening to something no one else can hear.

            Whether nor not that something is Acxa nearly gaining a new personal appreciation for concrete, she still burns with embarrassment and picks up the pace again. Beautiful bakers were clearly no good for anyone’s health.

 

**Day 2**

            Acxa is running past the bakery’s picture window again. The flour-dusted vision is braiding bread into some kind of complex plait today. Acxa stares at those talented fingers and nearly chokes on her own spit.

            She needs a new-new running route.

 

**Day 3**

            She does not get a new-new running route. The beautiful baker is pulling loaves of bread out of the oven today. She moves like music, following the exact same path between worktables, cooling racks, and ovens like she’s following expert choreography.

            Acxa wonders what music she’s listening to today, that she dances like that.

 

**Day 7**

            “I can’t believe you’re running past a bakery every morning and not bringing me breakfast,” Lance complains.

            Keith, hunched over a mug of scalding hot coffee, grunts in what might be agreement.

            “Why would I bring you food?” Acxa asks, unhooking Wolf’s leash just in time for the giant hairball to leap for Keith, miss as his master ducks out of the way, and ultimately crash into Lance, taking him down to the floor. 

            “Because I need food to live?” Lance says as he tries to wriggle free of Wolf’s excited attentions, “Unlike our resident edgelord who lives on coffee and the souls of the dammed?”

            Keith grunts around a gulp of too-hot coffee, only grimacing slightly in acknowledgment of how insanely hot it is. It’s a miracle he still has tastebuds left.

            “Yeah, still not getting how you wanting something equals me getting it for you,” Acxa says dryly as she puts together the ingredients for her morning smoothie. “Noise, Keith.”

            He nods and sets his coffee aside to put his hands his ears. Keith’s hearing is always sensitive when he first wakes up and with him working swing shift at the police station, he’s not exactly an early riser these days.

            Lance, finally escaping Wolf’s overwhelming love, pops up at the breakfast table and grabs an orange from the fruit bowl. “Because I’m your beloved roommate’s _extremely_ handsome, charming, and beloved boyfriend.”

            “So I should feed you?”

            “So you should show your love for Keith by feeding him and by extension, me,” Lance grins brightly at her, orange peel all over his hands.

            “You get orange juice on the table again I’m divorcing you,” Keith grumbles around his second sip of tastebud-obliterating coffee.

            “We’re not married.”

            “Cool, then it’s not matricide if I kill you for making my table sticky.”

            Lance exclaims in mock offense and they’re off with their weird, murder-y flirting. Acxa tunes them out and slams her finger extra aggressively into the blender’s on button. She really does have a problem, and it’s not whether or not her roommate’s boyfriend can manage to eat without making a mess.

 

**Day 12**

            It’s abnormally hot outside and Wolf’s panting is less happy-dog-on-a-run and more dog-with-too-much-fur-slowly-dying and that is the _only_ reason Acxa stops at the bakery. Really. The only reason.

            Also the beautiful flour-dusted goddess in the window wasn’t there today and Acxa wants to know why not. But no, this is totally an unselfish bid for her dog not to pass out from heatstroke.

            A jingle bell tinkles over the door as she walks in, Wolf trailing behind her.

            Inside the bakery are warm, buttery shades of yellow and burnt umber with summer-sky blue accents. It feels like standing in a drop of honey, or maybe in a field of daisies. A broad, heavy-boned man with large, floury hands and a yellow bandana pushing back a shock of dark hair greets her with a smile. “Hello, what can I get for you?”

            _‘Where’s the beautiful bread-maker I’ve been low-key stalking for almost two weeks?’_ Acxa wants to say, but doesn’t. Instead she blurts out, “Do you have any bowls? And water? And bowls I could put water in?” Realizing she sounds insane, or like she was dropped on her head as a baby, she backpedals, “I think my dog’s a little overheated.” 

            “Puppy?” a head of wild dandelion-fluff dark blonde hair pops up around the corner. Apparently catching sight of Wolf, a small skinny body flings itself out from behind the counter in a burst of renewed energy. “Ooh, a big puppy!” The figure dashes forward and stops in front of Acxa, “Hi, I’m Pidge, I make coffee here, can I please pet your dog?”

            Acxa blinks bemusedly, “Uh, sure. His name’s Beowulf but we call him Wolf.”

            Pidge beams, a bright smile splitting her round, youthful face as she drops down to crouch in front of Wolf. “Hi there, big puppy,” she says, holding out a hand for him to sniff, “You’re a sweet puppy, aren’t you?” The tornado of blonde hair flips back up, “Sorry, I promise I’m a human adult with a big vocabulary and a job. Just…” she shrugs helplessly, “Puppy.” 

            The man at the counter chuckles as he brings out a small bowl full of water he kneels down and sets in front of Wolf.

            “Hi, I’m Hunk, your dog is beautiful.”

            _‘Thanks, so is your baker’_ is not a reasonable response, and Acxa knows this, so she just says, “Thanks, he’s my roommate and I’s. But Keith works nights so I get the morning run.”

            Hunk grins, “I wish I could convince my girlfriend to go for a dog, but after I we couldn’t keep cactuses alive she kinda vetoed any more living things.”

            “I have a gecko named Rover,” Pidge beams, “I love him, but he’s not as cuddly as this good boy.”

            Wolf is chugging water like he’s dehydrated, which makes Acxa feel a tiny bit like she’s an irresponsible dog mom, but his tail is wagging and he’s clearly enjoying being the center of attention.

            “Sorry,” Hunk looks up from Wolf, “I know you came in to prevent doggie dehydration, but can I get anything for you?”

            _‘Your baker’s number’_ is definitely an inside the head thought that does not need to be shared with the class. “Oh, I’m fine,” Acxa starts, only to be immediately cut off by Pidge.

            “No way you’re leaving without some espresso and a cookie.”

            “I’m not an unattended child,” Acxa points out archly, indicating the sign hanging at the register reading ‘unattended children will be given an espresso and a free cookie’.

            “No, that’s why your cookie’s not free,” Pidge says cheekily.

            Acxa snorts, “Sure, I could go for an iced Americano.”

            “Coming right up,” Pidge darts off to wash her hands and start the coffee grinder.

            “I know they’re not everyone’s thing, but I have some fresh oatmeal raisin cookies just out of the oven,” Hunk offers.

            “They’d better be fresh out of the oven,” Pidge yells, “that’s the only way you’re conning anyone into eating your liar cookies.”

            “Pidge was betrayed by an oatmeal raisin cookie at a very young age,” Hunk says mock-solemnly.

            “They kidnap her family and ship them off to eternal indentured servitude to our space alien overlords?”

            Hunk nods gravely, “And they lied about having chocolate chips in them.”

            Pidge snorts at the espresso machine, “Yeah, yeah, fuck you too.”

            “Pidge!” Hunk protests, moving to cover Wolf’s ears, “Language.”

            “Yeah, think of the children,” Pidge says dryly, passing Acxa her coffee, “Did you want one of his liar cookies or nah?”

            Acxa actually like oatmeal raisin cookies but she feels like that won’t win her point with her coffee supplier and keeps her mouth shut. What’s a falsehood or two in exchange for good espresso?

            “Don’t you guys normally sell bread too?” Acxa hears herself asking. Oh yes, what a smooth and subtle transition into being nosy about her crush. She’s definitely got this social interaction thing down.

            “Yeah, but it’s the bread queen’s day off, so everything’s a day old,” Pidge explains as she wipes down the espresso machine, “Hunk’s a really good cook, but  Narti would probably shank him with a mixer if he tried to mess with her bread stuff.”

            “She’s blind, Pidge, she needs everything to be in the same place. I’m not going to mess with the system,” Hunk says generously, bagging up a cookie for Acxa, even though she’s pretty sure she didn’t get around to asking for one yet. He holds it out to her, “here, try one of the cookies. I promise it’s better than Pidge makes it sound.”

            “Lair cookies,” Pidge mutters mutinously.

            “Uh, thanks,” Acxa take the bagged-up cookie, fumbling slightly as she juggles Wolf’s leash and her drink, “How much do I owe you?”

            “First one’s free!” Hunk offers cheerily.

            Pidge rolls her eyes, “Shay’s gonna kick our asses when she does the books for this quarter.”

            “It’s one cookie, and a little espresso, Pidge. Totally worth it for a new friend.”

            Pidge just rolls her eyes again, this time even more emphatically, “Whatever, Shay’s your girlfriend, man.”

            Acxa bids the gently bickering duo goodbye pondering the new information they’ve presented her with. One, the beautiful baker’s name is Narti. Two, she might be single. Maybe. It sounds like Hunk’s in a monogamous relationship with someone else, at least, and Pidge didn’t mention any significant other statues when Narti came up. Acxa can hang onto that as tentative proof that this isn’t a completely hopeless crush. You know. If she ever wanted to talk to the beautiful baker. In the future. Maybe.

            And three, Narti is blind. Which at least explains how she manages to do everything so perfectly with her eyes shut and her lips moving along to whatever music she’s listening to at the moment.

            Acxa takes a sip of her (amazing) iced Americano, ignoring Wolf’s persistent attempts to run ahead. She’s got it bad for this girl. Some part of her thought maybe if she got her name and a little information she’d be content. But it’s like an addict’s high, now that she’s had a little taste of what she _could_ know, she’s just hungry for more. She wants to know everything about this mystery girl, and she wants to know it _yesterday._

            Well. This is not ideal.

 

**Day 12, part 2**

            She splits the cookie with Keith.

            “Oh my fucking god.”  
            “Right?”

            “This cookie is like crack. I want a dozen.”

            Lance wanders in because he’s either managed to acquire his own key despite having his own place (technically) or Keith just didn’t bother to lock the door. “Hey, is that one of Hunk’s cookies? Those things are so good, oh my god.” 

            And that’s how they find out Lance knows Hunk from high school and they’re Facebook friends, he just didn’t realize that it was _Hunk’s_ bakery Acxa kept running past and really, isn’t this a hilarious coincidence?   
            Acxa eats the rest of the cookie and the part Keith was maybe-possibly-you-can’t-prove-anything-ACXA saving for Lance out of spite. Stupid useless roommate’s boyfriends.

            “Do you want me to ask him for deets on your bread girl?” Lance asks, tapping out a text on his phone that’s surely destined for Hunk.

            “No,” Acxa growls, crumpling up the paper bag and draining the last of her espresso. She wants to find out this information _for herself._ She’s not going to _cheat_. That’s not how it _works._

            Lance looks at her a little like he thinks she’s totally nuts and a little like he pities her for being so romantically incompetent. Which. So not fair. He and Keith met when the local Blockbuster went out of business and the two of them nearly got into a brawl over who took home the last copy of ‘The Lion King’ on DVD.

            “Does anyone even say ‘deets’?” Keith asks, brow furrowed like he’s seriously searching his memory like Google for any incidence in which a human person used the word ‘deets’ in casual conversation in front of him.

            Blessed, blessed Keith and his Lance-distracting powers means Acxa gets a nice ten minutes to day dream about beautiful bakers while they bicker.

            Keith is a good friend.  Too bad about her eating the rest of his half of the cookie.

 

**Day 13**

            Narti is back. Narti is still beautiful. Acxa stands at the window surreptitiously staring at her loveliness as she gently tucks chopped cherries and white chocolate chips into a bed of white dough.

            Then her iPod abruptly shifts from ‘Demons’ by The Sleigh Bells to ‘Out Tonight’ from the musical _Rent_ and it’s abrupt enough to shake her out of her reverie and remind her of a time when she wasn’t a creepy stalker loitering outside of bakery windows.

            She’s thoroughly shamed enough that she runs off without ducking inside for another awesome espresso drink.

 

**Day 14-15-16**

Acxa is a coward and Narti is still beautiful.

            She might be rage-eating too many fistfuls of knock-off Cheetos while watching Keith and Lance get way too competitive over Mario Kart for her personal health and sanity.

 

**Day 17**

The first thing Acxa thinks when Wolf takes off running in the goddamn grocery story is _‘I’m pretty sure in another life I deserve this’._ Seeing as she had been debating whether or not she could get away with buying off-brand fruit loops and just refilling the brand-name Fruit Loops box without Lance noticing and pitching a fit (they all knew Keith either wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t care) she might even deserve it in this life. As it is, she’s jog-trotting after her ginormous dog, clutching a pillow-sized bag of Frooty O’s and feeling the combined stares of six soccer moms in yoga pants judging her entire life up to this point.

            She almost doesn’t even blame them at this point. It’s four pm, she’s wearing sweatpants she stole from her roommate, no bra under her t-shirt and a baseball cap stuffed over hair she hasn’t gotten around to washing yet. She’s judging herself too.

            She almost trips over Wolf when the big lump _finally_ decides to stop _running through Safeway,_ drops her fake cereal pillow, bends down to pick it up, and looks up in time to see Wolf earnestly trying to make friends with another dog, this one wearing an orange service animal vest.

            Oh god, she’s an asshole. Her dog is an accidental asshole. They might never be able to come back to this grocery store again.

            And then she sees who’s holding the service dog’s leash and she just shrivels up and dies inside.

            It’s Narti, looking confused but not openly hostile. Her headscarf is dove grey today with little pink and blue flowers on it. It complements her unfocused tawny eyes beautifully. She has a basket of produce slung over her arm, and she’s holding an orange like she was smelling it to see how fresh it was. Acxa wishes she was the kind of person who could smell produce instead of just making sure it wasn’t moldy and hoping for the best.

            “Uh, hi,” Acxa doesn’t choke on her tongue, which…points to her, “My dog must have heard your dog across the store or something. He’s really friendly. My dog, I mean.” Wow, if her tactical unit could see her now. She’d always had a reputation for being taciturn and never speaking more than the bare minimum. Clearly something was going very wrong in her brain right now. “He just dragged me across the store to meet you, I mean, to meet your dog.”

            Somewhere Keith is definitely laughing at her.

            “I’m so sorry,” Acxa adds miserably, “I know your dog’s working, and I promise I don’t normally interrupt service dogs at work, just Wolf kind of bolted and he’s a huge husky/shepherd and he took me by surprise.”

            Narti is actually…maybe smiling? Her lips are tucking upward slightly, at least. “Is that your dog? Wolf?”

            “It’s short for Beowulf. My roommate’s a nerd.”

            Narti gives her a little laugh. It’s the best sound. “This is Kitten.” Her dog, a sleek black medium sized mutt’s head perks up at the sound of her name.

            “She’s being very patient with Wolf,” Acxa observes. Wolf, for his part, is wagging his tail like he wants to turn it into a propeller and take flight. Kitten gazes at the much bigger dog prancing in front of her with an air of weary resignation.

            “Only a little snobby?” Narti offers, head tilted to the side, enigmatic little smile still in place.

            “Only a little,” Acxa offers with a chuckle when the smaller dog reaches out and presses a weary paw to the crown of Wolf’s head like a grande dame saying ‘enough’.

            “She thinks she is a cat,” Narti offers. Her smile stutters slightly, “I am sorry. I do not speak much.”

            “Sorry for interrupting your shopping experience,” Acxa shrugs, then cringes a little on the inside when she remembers the other woman can’t see the gesture, “I’m not normally all that chatty either.”

            “You are good at it.”

            “Being chatty?” Acxa chokes on a laugh.

            Narti smiles, “Yes.”

            Acxa allows her to laugh long and loud at that. “I’ve got nothing on my roommate’s boyfriend. He could talk to a rock. I’m pretty sure he talks to the furniture when we’re not there.”

            “You do not?” Narti raises both eyebrows, teasing.

            Acxa smiles a crooked smile of her own, “Only sometimes.”

            Narti pauses for a long heartbeat, mouth presses together like she’s considering something, “What is your name?”

            “Acxa.”

            “Shop with me, Acxa?”   
            “Oh, you don’t have to, I can drag Wolf away…”

            “Kitten cannot read labels. I do not like speaking to…”

            “Strangers?”

            Narti makes a slight helpless gesture with one hand, “No.”

            “Me neither,” Acxa concurs and takes the arm Narti holds out to her. “Let’s read some labels.”

 

**Day 18 (sort of)**

            “Hi Keith,” Acxa says when her roommate walks in the door around midnight after his 3pm-11pm shift has finished at the police station. He’s holding a bag of fresh-off-the-conveyer-belt Krispy Kreme donuts and struggling out of his boots when she speaks. She’s lucky he throws the boot at her head and not the bag of donuts. That would have been a waste of good donuts.

            “What the shit, Acxa,” Keith hisses at her as she catches the boot and throws it back at him. His uniform is crinkled and his eyes have dark circles under them and one of his cheeks is the kind of red and blue that eventually turns to purple bruising.

            “Break up another bar fight?” Acxa asks.

            “No, just two drunks going at it in a parking lots of a Denny’s,” Keith yawns, wandering over to the freeze, “One got in a lucky hit. Just not on the other guy’s face.”

            “Put some ice on it,” Acxa says, just as Keith ducks out from behind the freezer door, waving a bag of frozen peas pointedly.

            “So,” he says, throwing himself into the kitchen chair across from her, peas over his swelling cheekbone, bag of donuts between them, “Why are you lurking around waiting for me to get off work?”

            “For the donuts, obviously,” she says, tone dry as she opens the bag and extracts a misshapen glazed donut, raising an eyebrow at her find.

            “They sell the messed up ones for half price. Fresh off the conveyer belt. Glaze still melting.”

            “Lance taught you this trick, didn’t he?”

            “Lance isn’t directly responsible for all the weird stuff I do,” Keith grumbles around a bite of malformed sugar bread.

            Acxa rolls her eyes and takes her own bite of donut, “Yeah. I know that.”

            Keith kicks her chair leg, but doesn’t argue with her. “Whatever. What’s going on?”

            Acxa swallows a suddenly _enormous_ lump of donut. “I talked to Narti today.”

            “You know stalking is illegal, right? I can arrest people for it.”

            Axca leans over the table to whack Keith on the back of the head. “I ran into her at the grocery store.”

            “One, assaulting an officer is a crime too. Two, stalker.”

            “Three, it was an accident, blame Wolf.”

            “Wolf is stalking your crush for you?”

            Acxa sighs and stares at Keith. “Are you done?”

            He sighs and finishes off his donut in two brisk bites, “Yeah, I’m too tired for this.”

            “Good,” she licks melted frosting off her fingers with brisk, practiced ease, “I ran into Narti at the grocery store because Wolf smelled her service dog and decided he _had_ to meet her. And then we went shopping. Together. And it was really nice.”

            “And now you’re going to stop by the bakery and ask her out like a normal fucking person?”

            “Um. No?”

            Keith stares at her like she’s the dumbest creature to ever stand on two legs and call itself human. “Seriously?”

            Acxa sighs, resting her cheek on the heel of her hand, elbow propped up on the table. “This was nice.”

            “So you talk to her and figure out how to do it again.”

            “Or I just enjoy a nice memory and not do anything because I don’t want to be a stalker creep?”

            Keith shoves away from the table with a weary exhalation, “I’m too tired to listen to you sound like me.”

            Acxa snorts, but it’s only half amused at best.

            “I’m just saying,” Keith explains as he clears up the mess from the donuts, “You told me to ‘grow a spine and talk to him’ when I was first into Lance, and now I’m dating him. So your advice can’t be that bad.”

            And with that he walks away, leaving Acxa to thunk her forehead into the kitchen table and sigh in peace.

…

**Day 19**

            It’s Narti’s day off again and Acxa takes this opportunity to stop by the bakery and chat with Pidge and Hunk, letting Wolf suck up to Pidge and Hunk for pets and scratches like the cuddle monster he is.

            She walks away with another giant cookie that she can’t bring herself to eat because it tastes of guilt and cowardice. Luckily, Lance is at the apartment when she gets back, and Keith isn’t, so she just hands the cookie over after making him swear not to tell Keith where he got it from. There’s a 99% chance he’ll break and spill everything to Keith within 24 hours, but Acxa’s just going to keep rolling forward on the strength of that 1% and her own delusions.

            Yep, this is how healthy adults function.

…

**Day 20**

Keith sees the cinnamon roll and comes to the correct conclusion. Asshole. “You whimped out.”

            Acxa glares at him and flicks frosting his direction. “Yes.”

            She’d spotted Narti in the window and she’d been even more beautiful than Acxa remembered, dancing through her routine, lips shaping the words to the song in her headphones. Acxa wondered which playlist went with this bake. Narti had told her she listened to different types of music depending on which type of bread she was making – early 2000s Britney Spears for sweet breads, K. Flay for breads with a lot of heavy kneading, 2Cellos for heavy detail work, Kesha for the white and wheat bread they sold sliced every day.

            Her favorite song is ‘Godzilla’ by Kesha.

            Acxa isn’t sure how, but she’s never really thought about what her own favorite song is. She knows ‘Children’s Work’ by Dessa makes her think of her and Keith and a desert an ocean away. She knows ‘Daddy Lessons’ by Beyoncé sends her back to her own childhood with a violent jolt. She knows ‘New Rules’ by Dua Lipa sends her back to a cramped apartment and a dozy late summer afternoon, Lance grabbing Keith’s hands and dancing with him in the living room, stumbling over coffee tables as Acxa brought a cool can to her lips, laughing beer bubbles as Lance whooped and Keith barked his shin on the couch.

            Narti makes her want to know everything about the other woman. Narti makes her want to know herself.

            And Acxa was inches away from opening the door and walking inside and asking to see her, speak with her, ask her out, ask her anything. And she didn’t. She opened the door and Hunk and Pidge pet Wolf and Hunk’s girlfriend Shay gave her a coffee and a cinnamon roll and Acxa couldn’t make the words leave her mouth.

            Keith gives her a pitying look in the present. “You’re allowed to ask, you know.”

            Acxa glares at him, “It’s fucking difficult, ok?” she snarls, more bite in the words than she intends, but now that they’re out there, she’s not sure how to drag them back inside where they belong.

            Keith’s eyes look sad.

            A line from that song that always makes her think of them runs through her head:

            _My father was a paper plane/my mother was a windswept tree/my little brother’s nearly twice my age…_

            “It’s really hard, isn’t it?” he says and he sounds tired and unexpectedly wise, “It’s really hard to learn how to be an ordinary person again.”

            And she’d thought she was doing well. That she had all her shit together, that between the running and the school and the part time job and the dog and the roommate she’d somehow skipped out on the hardest parts of Coming Back from Over There. And in some ways she had. She and Keith had a friend who’d come back with most of his right arm blown off and a traumatic brain injury. They just had nightmares and the occasional flashback and no idea how to be a person again.

            “It’s ok,” Keith says and she nods, “It’d going to be ok.”

            And that’s all they have to say. They split the cinnamon roll together. Tomorrow. Tomorrow she’ll talk to Narti.

…

**Day 21**

            In the end, it’s not up to Acxa.

            Acxa runs by the window and Narti isn’t there, but then she opens the door and there she is, standing behind the counter, wearing a marbled blue and purple headscarf and a dusting of flour across her cheeks like freckles.

            And it’s so easy for Acxa’s face to fall into a smile, like Narti conjures it up just by being there, “Hey, Narti. Good to see you again.” 

            “Hi,” a slight smile tipping up the corners of her lips.

            “It’s Acxa from the grocery store, I don’t know if you remember – ”

            “I do,” a pause, she’d told Acxa words were hard, that she’d had a severe speech impediment as a child, she didn’t talk when she ‘should have’, that they didn’t think she’d ever speak clearly, that words were still hard, making the connections between the pictures in her head and the things she wanted to say was a twisting, complicated path where for most people it was a straight line. “I wanted to listen to you again.”

            “I wanted to listen to you again too,” Acxa hears herself saying.

            A wry smile, and a finger pointed her way, “Teasing.”

            Acxa shook her head, approaching the counter, Wolf at her heels, “No,” she admits, “I see you all the time. When I run past the bakery when you’re working, I can see you in the window. You’re…beautiful. Like you’re dancing. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for weeks.”

            “You said at the store. You see me working.”

            “But I didn’t say how amazing you were. When I saw you. Best part of my day, really.” 

            “I liked it. That you saw me.  I want to share,” she gestures to the display cases, to the bakery as a whole, “What I make. How I do it.”

            “You were the best part of my runs.”

            “You were the best part of my groceries.”

            And of course Pidge ruins it by bursting around the corner, making Wolf yelp with excitement at the sight of his little friend. “Oh my god, you like each other, you want to talk put your face on her face, you want to talk and hold hands and be stupid cute together. So go do it before we get a real customer and they ruin the happy gay moment!”

            “Like you just did?” Hunk observes dryly, looking down at Pidge, who looks utterly unrepentant.

            “I do the things I do out of love. Now get out of here, lovebirds and have a real fucking date!”

            Acxa is sweaty and gross from her run and Narti is still liberally dusted with flour, but handholding is meant to be a little weird and sticky anyway. Hands are a certain type of gross that you only want to share with people who make it worth it. And listening to Narti’s quiet, slow, measured voice as they walk down the street, hand in hand, Acxa knows this girl is worth everything.

…

**Bonus Scene**

            Their first double date with Keith and Lance was probably destined to end up this way, Acxa reflects as the four of them eat ice cream squashed together on a park bench. Lance has a paper bowl stuffed with three types of ice cream liberally coated in sprinkles, chunks of various candy bars, and what looks like gummy worms. Keith is licking sorbet out of his waffle cone, a tiny crease between his brows that says he’s either concentrating very hard or still sulking that neither Acxa nor Lance let his lactose intolerant ass buy ice cream. Narti is eating her lavender and lemon ice cream in tiny, delicate spoonfuls, head tilted to the side as she listens to her friends. Acxa licks the remains of her ice cream sandwich off her hands, not caring when Keith wrinkles his nose at her and mouths ‘gross’ at her messiness.

            “I can’t believe _Acxa_ got us thrown out of a restaurant.” Lance moans, “I wanted to be the first to do that. But nooo, you’re all ‘no, Lance, wear a shirt’, and ‘no, Lance, don’t ask for a basket of free chips to go’ and ‘Lance, stop whispering to the fish about communism and offering to free them’.” 

            “Ok, the communist fish thing was just creepy, I didn’t actually think we’d get thrown out for it,” Keith observes.

            “I can’t believe you were poo-pooing the revolution, babe,” Lance licks his spoon, front and back, “I’m disappointed in you.”

            “I think we’re all forgetting that server was being a dick to my girlfriend,” Acxa says. She got an ice cream sandwich partly because she likes them and partly because her arm was comfy around Narti’s waist and she’s keeping it there until Narti says to let go or someone physically pries them apart.

            “Yeah, but was the right response to jump out of your chair and say ‘I’m a veteran and if you keep up your dickery I’m gonna Desert Storm your ass’? Couldn’t you have just complained to the manager?” Lance suggests.

            “Yeah, threatening to Desert Storm someone doesn’t even make sense,” Keith points out, “You should have just thrown your water at him or something.”

            “Oh my god, no,” Lance sighs, “And babe, how come you never get into altercations with people defending my honor?”

            “Fine, next time I see someone checking out your ass at the gym I’ll just stand on a workout bench and yell ‘I’m a veteran and if you keep objectifying my boyfriend I can and will shoot your gross face’.”

            “Yeah, you’re not doing that,” Acxa tells him flatly.

            “People check out my ass at the gym?” Lance asks, like that’s the real question here.

            Narti’s shaking with silent laughter under Acxa’s arm, cheek pressed against Acxa’s shoulder where she can feel her girlfriend’s smile against her bicep.

            “Good night?” Acxa asks, lips brushing the crown of Narti’s head.

            “Good night,” she agrees, and that’s all Acxa needs to hear.

**Author's Note:**

> Fic title from 'Lay it on Me' by Vance Joy


End file.
